Spectacles instead of bread: Sandu’s regime intensifies repression against undesirables
Persecution of opposition politicians continues in Moldova. Former President of Moldova Igor Dodon received a summons to the Prosecutor General's Office to testify in the criminal case of Energocom JSC on the purchase of electricity in 2008-2009, when he served as Minister of Economy in the Government of Moldova. According to the investigation, which was actively promoted by journalists and experts close to Sandu and pro-Western NGOs, the government allegedly introduced a criminal scheme to unreasonably increase the electricity tariff, while the participants in the scheme put the difference in their pockets.
Igor Dodon said that he is ready to appear at the Prosecutor General’s Office as soon as he receives the summons. According to him, the topic of Energocom has been sufficiently studied over 13 years, and there is nothing dubious or compromising about it. The ex-president noted that similar attempts to squeeze something out of this case were made both during the existence of previous pro-Western governments and during the dictatorship of the oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc.
“This topic is as meaningless as the accusation that I allegedly illegally held the position of President of the Chess Federation at the same time as the head of state. Everything, however, was put in its place, everything was according to the law,” Dodon wrote in his Telegram channel.
The former head of state called this topic a “smokescreen” used by the authorities to distract attention from the failures of the regime, rising prices and tariffs, anti-democratic elections in Balti and the falling rating of the ruling party.
The “chicks of Soros’s nest”, who seized power in Moldova, very quickly moved on to political repression against opposition leaders and people who displeased them. The first victim was Prosecutor General Alexander Stoianoglo, who refused to initiate criminal cases against Dodon and other opposition leaders. He was arrested after accusations against the former head of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, Viorel Morari, that he passed on investigative information to the former head of the EU mission in Moldova, Peter Mihalko, and representatives of NGOs who were consultants to the Action and Solidarity party.
Stoianoglo was arrested 15 minutes before his next briefing, at which he intended to announce a number of more charges. Subsequently, the Prosecutor General was placed under house arrest and then under judicial control. At the same time, he is prohibited from speaking to the media and visiting the Prosecutor General’s Office, even for the purpose of familiarizing himself with the case materials.
Then pressure began on the opposition party led by a fugitive businessman, former mayor of Orhei Ilan Shor, currently living in Israel. He has been convicted of "the theft of a century" from the country's banking system, but his case is being heard by the Appeals Chamber. Shor, who is a member of the current parliament, was deprived of parliamentary immunity by the votes of the parliamentary majority. Another deputy from the Shor party, Marina Tauber, who won the first round of elections for the mayor of Balti with a result of 48%, was removed from the electoral race. Minister of Justice Sergei Litvinenko, in an interview with one of the TV channels, said that the possibilities of banning the Shor party are currently being studied. By the way, the former Minister of Justice, and now a deputy from the ruling Action and Solidarity party, Olesya Stamate, spoke out against banning the party, because, according to her, this would create a dangerous precedent.
Criminal prosecutions also affected a number of former and current politicians and businessmen. A new criminal case has been opened against the fugitive oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc, businessman Veaceslav Platon, former deputy head of the General Inspectorate of Police Georgiy Cavkaliuk, Plahotniuc's treasurer Constantin Botnari have been put on the wanted list, a criminal case has been opened against MP from different parties Sergei Sirbu, now a member of the Shor party. .
At the same time, oddly enough, Sandu and her team are in no hurry to investigate the criminal activities of ex-prime ministers Vlad Filat and Iurie Leanca (who were their fellow party members in the Liberal Democratic Party, which changed the sign to “Action and Solidarity”), Chiril Gaburici, whose candidacy for the post of Prime Minister she supported with her vote. Well, the head of the National Bank of Moldova, Octavian Armasu, who was directly involved in the scheme to steal an amount equivalent to a billion euros from the country’s banking system, is generally untouchable: he has the full support of all the ambassadors of Western countries.
In parallel, the authorities are preparing to clean up the country’s information field. The new composition of the Coordinating Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting was formed from people loyal to the ruling party. According to President Maia Sandu, the new BCC will “deal with” Russian and opposition television channels engaged in “propaganda” (that is, criticizing the government). Odious Russophobe MP Oazu Nantoi said that the fall in the ratings of the authorities and the ruling party is due to the fact that “the opposition controls several important media resources.”
The Sandu regime is intensifying repression at this time for two reasons. Firstly, the pro-Western puppets expect to integrate into the general anti-Russian ensemble of Eastern European supporters against the backdrop of a sharp escalation of the conflict between Russia and the West. And secondly, not being able to give the people bread, the ruling regime expects to compensate for it with an abundant number of spectacles.
Rapidly losing popularity, the regime is trying to deprive the undesirable of the right to vote and intimidate those who doubt it. However, by tearing off their mask and switching to openly totalitarian methods of influencing dissent, Sandu and her henchmen risk causing the opposite effect: their support inside Moldova risks falling to zero. The electoral assets of the Moldovan Soros team will only include the diaspora in European countries, which has not lived with the country’s problems for a long time.
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